Personality Problem
by PurpleHeroBanjo
Summary: After manny is hospitalized, he finds himself switching between 4 personalities. Can he find a way to get him back to normal? Please R
1. Sick

It was a dark stormy day in Miracle City. The weather had been bad, recently. At one middle school in the big town, a boy in a black jacket and a yellow and orange striped shirt was at his locker. His belt buckle had a T symbol on it. The teenager had a noticeable scar over his left eye, and he looked drained like he had little to no energy left. He closed his locker, but then he felt something poke the back of his head. "Hey, Manny," he looked over his shoulder, seeing a girl that was nearly his height. She had blue hair and red goggles on her head, and she was wearing a white shirt and a red skirt that had suspenders on them. "Hey, Frida…" Manny coughed while looking at his best friend. She lost her cheery tone by the time she saw the front of him. "Whoa, Manny! What happened to you?" Frida asked, seeing how he looked like this assuming he only had one hour of sleep for energy at the moment.

"Nothing's happened. Just was up all night," Manny answered boredly. So far lately he hadn't been feeling like doing any evil kinds of acts, any criminal things to do or to stop, since the police handled them before he got the chance, since they were so small lately. He began coughing again somewhat violently. "You should go see the nurse…" Frida insisted. She didn't like to see her friend in this condition, let alone near a state that he couldn't stay on his own two feet. "I-I went to the doctor the other day… I'm going to go to the doctor again after school. Don't worry about me, Frida, I've survived worse," the teenage boy smiled, wanting to reassure that he will be fine and get over this easy. "Well, alright. We have to practice this new song after school. I'll see you later," she said before walking away to get to her next class. Manny viewed the empty hallways and just went his separate direction, just repeating to himself mentally to get through the school day.

Manny had gotten through maybe another class and a half, but while sitting at his desk, he was starting to feel like he was burning. The teacher was speaking aloud from a book, while Manny was noticing his vision slightly blurring, and his hearing messing up. He covered his mouth when he began coughing, trying to keep quiet, but every second just felt like he was standing in a burning building that only kept getting hotter and hotter. He was starting to think thta he couldn't handle the next two classes in this condition. "Teacher, can I be excused to go to the nurse?" he requested. The teacher took a small glance at him. His student was now partially pale, and there was at least ten minutes left in the current session, anyway. "Yes, you may," he answered, watching the student leave the classroom immediately.

When Manny entered the empty hallway, everything was just getting blurrier and blurrier. He wasn't even halfway to the nurse's office when he leaned against the wall nearby, panting, looking down at his shaking hands. Before he even could realize it, he was on the floor. Everything began to black out. He fell unconscious, though someone else entered the hallway, and had seen him on the floor, having witnessed most of his weird behavior in the hall.

Manny coughed once he began to reawaken. His vision wasn't in much better condition. He still felt awful, but he noticed the sound of a siren blaring. He tried to sit up. Before he could, a hand was put on his chest to keep him down. "Hey, chico, calm down. Do you have anyone you want us to contact? A legal guardian or a parent?" the paramedic asked, wanting to know if there was anyone to call for this kind of problem. Manny coughed, just lying back, staring at the ceiling. "M-my Grandpapi…" he mumbled weakly, since his dad was away on one of a common many business trips that lasted a day or two at most. "Alright, Manny. Just relax. Your friend already gave us your information," the paramedic stated before leaving his side to get back to the front of the ambulance. Manny heard radio chatter while all he could do was stare at the ceiling.

After ten minutes of transportation, Manny found himself stuck in the ICU at the hospital. He looked down at his arm, seeing the IV needle. He felt better than before, but it wasn't saying much. "Some flu…" he muttered. A light tap on the door was then heard, and Manny saw it open. "Grandpapi!" he exclaimed, seeing his grandfather enter the room in his black clothing, and sombrero that had small skulls hanging around the rim of it. "Manny, m'boy! Are you okay?" his grandfather asked, coming to his bedside. His grandson nodded. "I'm fine. But I should've stayed home today…" he admitted with a light laugh.

A nurse entered the room, Manny and Grandpapi turning around to see her. She had a syringe in her hand. It made Manny feel a little uneasy to just see it and the red liquid in it. "Sorry, but this might burn a little," she apologized in advance before sticking it into his arm. It felt like someone was holding a lighter to his skin because it burned upon contact alone. Once it was injected, his whole arm began to burn slowly before the right side of his body. He just presumed the feeling would pass. "You'll be getting another three shots in a few hours, and if your condition is improved, you can be discharged tomorrow," she explained. With that done and said, she proceeded to leave the room.

"Mind if we don't tell dad about this? I don't want him to worry," Manny requested. "Sure. Once you feel better, I'll take you home," Grandpapi nodded. Manny just tried to relax afterward, though he was thinking back to what the paramedic had told him on the way here, that a friend had given his information and had found him in the hall. He thought it was Frida, but if that were the case, she would be with him throughout that whole time. It was confusing, but he didn't want to care about it right now. He was just thankful that somebody helped.

**Authors note: This is my first attempt at an el tigre fic, I hope it's good. I do not know if I'll continue it yet.**


	2. Black Cuervo

Early the next morning, Manny was just arriving home, his grandfather having been helping him most of the time. "Still feeling bad, m'boy?" he asked. The teenage boy nodded. "I feel a lot better than yesterday… I'm going to go lay down," he responded, just making his way upstairs, having regained some of his motor control, at least, though he still had a small headache that was pestering him. "Hm… were his eyes blue?" his grandpapi thought, swearing that his grandson was born with brown eyes, but he ignored it, not wanting to start thinking he was going senile in old age.

When in his room, Manny was looking at himself at his dresser's mirror. "Why am I so… depressed?" he asked. His reflection his eyes were blue now instead of their usual brown color. He felt unmotivated, not really able to see any difference himself. He went straight back to bed, wanting to sleep for now, knowing he was out of school for the day.

Manny slept for most of the morning to the early afternoon while he slumbered. Just then, someone entered his room. Frida approached her friend's bedside, digging around in her backpack before pulling out a bunch of papers and resting them on the night stand nearby. "Hey, Manny. Wake up," she said, nudging him. He groaned, beginning to sit up. Frida noticed, and wondered why, his eye color was different. "Oh… hi, Frida," Manny greeted her, sounding like he had little to any care in his voice. He noticed an annoyed look on his best friend's face.

"I brought you your homework. Why didn't you call me when you got put in the hospital?" Frida questioned, feeling bad for him, somewhat blaming herself for his hospitalization. She thought he would have been fine if he had went to the nurse sooner, but she knew it was too late to matter now. "I didn't want to distract you from your practice," Manny answered looking at the stack of homework. "You know if you're hurt, it's never a distraction," she sighed, reminding him. She didn't know much about medicine aside from simple bandage work that she had learned from one of many bad encounters with villainous people. "So how are you feeling?" Frida asked while taking a seat beside him. She could barely get her best friend to look at her face. She wondered if he was upset since his gaze was more attached to the floor at the moment.

"A lot better…" Manny said while he was picking up the first sheet of the stack of homework. Another awkward silence fell, as he began working on the homework, clearly with not much else planned for the day. "Your dad comes home tomorrow, right?" Frida had to remember. "Yeah," he nodded. The silence was hard to break, like any attempt at conversation starting failed, so Frida decided to change the topic to the first thing that came to mind. "Why are your eyes the wrong color?" she questioned. Manny raised an eyebrow, taking another look at himself in his mirror, now noticing it himself before he had presumed he was just tired. "I don't know. Maybe because I was sick?" the teenage boy scratched his head. The change of eye color was a cool ability, though he wish he knew how it had happened exactly to control it more.

"I never knew a disease could change eye color. Anyway, why don't we head to the arcade? That'll cheer you up," his blue haired friend suggested, where upon she noticed him get more cheerful already, as his blue eyes changed back to their original brown. "Yeah! Let's go!" Manny exclaimed. Frida just ignored it, glad he was back to normal and wasn't so mopey now. They just left to go to the arcade, Frida looking forward to beating him in some games.

At the Mayan arcade, the store filled of various game cabinets seemed emptier than usual today, aside from the workers that were appreciative of the noise being nowhere near as loud as it was most of the time. Manny and Frida were playing a fighting game. So far, it had been nearly one sided. Manny was barely able to get his character to get a hit against hers. He had regretted picking the character that needed nothing but skill to do anything, before he watched the last of his life bar fade right after. His fighter had been beaten thoroughly for the fourth time in a row.

"Best five out of seven?" Frida offered, but Manny rolled his eyes. "I think I'll pass…" he coughed while beginning to leave the arcade with her. Outside, the sun was beginning to set since it was starting to get late into the afternoon. Just then, something stopped Manny. "Is that a fire?" he wondered aloud, seeing a big cloud of smoke that was coming from only a few blocks away. "I think that's at the bank," she muttered, annoyed, knowing their time together was going to be interrupted by some random criminal. The two ran off to see what was going on.

Unfortunately, Frida had called it correctly. The bank had smoke coming from it, but it didn't appear to be a fire at all, but more like someone had blasted open the safe inside to steal money. The two realized who it was when they saw someone in a black suit that had purple stripes on areas of it, appearing as mainly a raven design. A big bag of money was snug in the purple criminal's hand, having gathered all she could carry with her strength. "Cuervo," Manny growled, recognizing the villain as a familiar classmate, who the two particularly avoided. Manny just spun the T symbol on his belt, getting himself engulfed in green flames for a brief moment, before transforming into his super heroic alias, El Tigre.

It was obvious that Black Cuervo had seen them, judging by the gaze from her red eyes. She began to fly into the air and dart off in an attempt to fly away and escape. Manny, watching her attempt to escape, fired a claw attached to a chain, straight at her. His aim was lucky, since he caught hold of her leg, though that was when she was already beginning to fly. He knew his arm's chain was beginning to wind up to the end of its length. He tried to grab something on the side of the street, but he didn't get the chance. El Tigre was yanked off the ground, and pulled high into the sky like gravity had gotten sick of being taken for granted. "MANNY!" Frida called. The only response she got was his echoic scream, as he was flying off in the distance.


	3. Rage

Manny was stuck flying in the air, hanging onto Black Cuervo. He was trying to keep calm, but every five seconds being scraped against a building or smashed into the side was starting to get on his nerves. He saw a tall apartment complex come into view, presuming she was going to fly over it. He quickly used his free hand to pull himself up as high as he could put his energy into. Sadly, it was a failure. He collided halfway into the roof. He dug his metal claws into the side of the roof right after impact. This stopped her flight, finally. Black Cuervo cast a glance at him, having only just noticed the cling on. She landed on the roof to see Manny who was pulling himself up, panting.

"Wh-what are you doing with that money?" Manny coughed out the first thing that came to mind. "We have to pay the bills, somehow. It was my turn to get the money. Why do you care? You going to just take the money and let me go?" she simply answered, her red eyes staring boredly at him. He recognized Black Cuervo as his old childhood friend that only made him feel conflicted, between apprehending to arrest, or just beating and taking the money back to claim she had escaped. It was a problem he considered personal in a sense. He didn't like the thought of friends hating him or family looking poorly on him if he became a hero or a villain. It was quite irritating, and it always plagued his mind.

"Maybe if you just hand over the money, Zoe," Manny responded, though Zoe's arm just aimed at him, and a laser gun popped out of the wrist. Manny just growled, before seeing her fire a blast of purple energy straight at him. He quickly threw himself onto the rooftop's hard ground, barely missing it. He noticed that it was bigger and badder than before, presuming that she had some notable upgrades since the last time they fought. Manny tried to get up, and that was where he saw her fly at him and punch him in the face, knocking him back nearly, throwing him off the rooftop.

Manny was panting and sweating, getting more angered by the second. Zoe smirked before firing again. Everything felt like it slowed down for Manny. After that, his eyes snapped to a violent red, and he let out a ferocious roar before putting up his guard and taking the laser blast into his arms. She was surprised that he wasn't trying to avoid it. He began to step toward her, letting the constant pressure of hot beams against his arms begin their dig into his skin.

When Manny got close enough, he let his metal claws slice the blaster off of her wrist, watching the scrap that was left over collapse to the ground. Zoe took a step back, ready to just fly off. The red in his eyes felt intimidating to hers. Manny threw both of his claws, watching them grab her wings. Before she could react, he had already ripped them off. "A-alright! Take the money!" she pleaded. Being cornered on a roof with someone that genuinely looked ready to kill her was filling her head with fear. She fell backwards on the ground, and Manny walked up to her and grabbed her helmet, hard, perhaps more strength than he could usually handle, beginning to crack the visor and helmet himself.

Manny looked down at her eye to eye, though he looked like he was housing the rage of a roaring fire, before suddenly, he felt something press against his chest. He looked down to see her other laser blaster that had been stored away in her other wrist til now. "At this close, you might die and maybe break my wrist. Now calm down," she threatened. Manny took in a deep breath, and exhaled, trying to resist the urge to just keep going. Reluctantly, he took his hand off her. Zoe slowly got up, and she leaned closer into him like she was just taunting him. "I don't know what's gotten into you. But I like it," she admitted before kissing him, fully on the lips. He couldn't do anything to resist the smooch. Zoe's blaster aimed downwards at his feet, and she fired, blasting the rooftop that had been acting as their footing. Manny fell into the hole, and Zoe took the chance to run straight for the fire escape.

Manny just lay there in a pile of rubble, staring at the sky, his enraged red eyes unmoving. Something caught his attention, which was a few wads of money lying nearby, more than likely having fallen out of the bag. He just forced himself onto his feet, grabbed the money and pocketed it, thinking there was no point in returning it. Perhaps it wasn't five percent of what was stolen from the bank. He reverted from his El Tigre form back to his regular clothing, and he began to leave the apartment. He doubted the chances of catching Zoe now, even if he knew where she went.

Manny had just begun roaming the streets. He was considering just heading home. It had been a short day, but he still felt angry, and his arms were aching in pain. Someone stopped him when he felt a hand grab his arm. It just sent a spike of pain on his arm. But that arm looked much too familiar. "There you are, Manny! I was looking all over for you…" she exclaimed, though she looked down at his arm and let go. The devil red eye color was frightening her. "What the… what happened?" she muttered. He knew she didn't mean to hurt him, but it just seemed to drive his rage farther, though by looking at her worried face, he started to have a headache. "She… she shot me," he simply answered, his eyes going blue once again before he began calming down.

Frida just shook her head. "Something's wrong with you. Come on. We need to take care of you," she insisted. Manny rubbed one of his arms, sorely. "It's what I deserve. What can I say? I failed to catch her…" he added, lying about the details of how brutally the two had assaulted each other or more so less he had allowed Zoe to hurt him badly. "You don't deserve pain, and if you think you do, you must have been hit in the head. Now come on. My house is nearby," Frida told him, beginning to drag him off. He didn't like the thought of running into her father, since that man always hated him, and resented him for the heaps of trouble he caused around town.


	4. Worry

Manny had been forced to Frida's house. He knew that she would be mad at him if he just went out of his way to ignore the injuries that he had actually claimed to deserve. When they arrived to her house, once entered inside. It seemed empty, which relieved Manny, thinking her parents were probably at work and her siblings were doing something in town.

"I think the first aid kits in the kitchen…" Frida said, leading him into the kitchen that looked recently cleaned. Manny's blue eyes however were drawn to the sight of the familiar older man that had black hair and a mustache, while wearing a light tan jacket, and a black eye patch. "Hey, dad. How're you feeling?" she greeted her father, Emiliano. His one eye was focusing on the young boy more, looking at his arms which showed the odd injury that confused him. He was moving a bit slower than usual. "Welcome home, Frida… and I'm fine," he answered. "If you need the first aid kit, it's in the bathroom closet," he added. It didn't take much to know why she had brought her best friend over. Frida wasted no time leaving the room to get it.

Manny took a seat the table. "Why aren't you at work?" blurted Manny. It was odd to see him off duty for once. Emiliano just sighed. "I got shot in the side stopping a heist. So I have a few days off. What hurt you?" he responded, questioning his injuries. The conversation was mainly just a time killer. The teenage boy wondered why she couldn't find the medical kit faster, since being alone with her father made him feel uncomfortable. The man still disliked him for his past criminal acts and dangers that he sometimes put his daughter in. "I tried to stop a bank robbery, and got blasted bad," Manny explained.

"Hm… at least you got lucky. It can always be worse…" Emiliano said while sitting down in front of him. The fact that Manny's eyes were blue, and that he was looking depressed, made him take a bit of pity on him. "In two days, I am going to be back on duty. I put up with common thugs. Anything could be a big threat...You shouldn't underestimate anyone or anything. Being a hero is a hard thing, not that I expect you to know much about it," Emiliano attempted to reassure him in his own way. It was hard to tell if he was depressed or just having a bad day. "Yes, sir…" Manny nodded not entirely understanding of what he said. Frida's father saw his eyes change to green. He was happier than a minute ago. If he was still in pain, he hid it well. Before the conversation could continue further, Frida finally showed up with the first aid kit. That practically hour long wait had barely taken a few minutes.

Frida spent the next half hour treating Manny's arms every now and then, giving a glance to his eyes. Ever since she saw them first change, she felt the need to keep focus on them. "Manny… do you know why your eyes keep changing color? They were blue before…" she asked. He seemed happier now that his eyes were green. It made her wonder if it was just some new power of his, pointless or not. "I don't know. I guess it just happens," Manny said. He never really noticed himself last time she had pointed it out, and he had blamed it on the sickness changing the color. But now, he had no clue.

Frida finished bandaging his left arm burn mark. Her dad was in the living room, just relaxing, mainly on doctor's orders. "Your dad comes home tomorrow until then. Just rest, alright? You've been put in the hospital, nearly burnt your arms up fighting… I'm just worried you aren't really able to do much. Promise me you won't do anything dangerous until you're completely better," Frida begged, knowing how much of a limit he had, especially if his condition kept getting worse. She was hoping his father would be able to help fix this. Manny was glad to have her watching over him, knowing she was just worried. Normally she was as laid back as he was, but lately the injuries just kept piling up.

"Alright. I promise," Manny said as his eyes went back to the blue color. "It happened again!" she announced, somewhat startling him. After that, he just left her home, not wanting to trouble her anymore. He was planning on going to try and look into this eye problem of his. He had to go back to school tomorrow, so it would mean trouble if he randomly wound up acting weird again. He thought to himself, that perhaps his grandfather would know what was wrong with him.


	5. Planning

Manny was arriving home, tired and feeling in pain. His arms may have been treated, but that hadn't changed the lack of feeling his arms, but he knew it was most likely from the burns from Black Cuervo's blasts. When he arrived to his somewhat empty home, he saw his grandfather working on a weird device. "Grandpapi. What are you doing?" Manny asked while approaching. It looked like some weird small sized metal stud. Grandpapi stopped what he was doing and put the few tools he was using aside. "Oh. Just a device to freeze people in place for a short time...It shoots an electric pulse out into their legs, messing up the nerves so they lose control for a few minutes," he explained. Manny could guess the device was designed for his father if he ever tried to stop Puma Loco during a villainous act.

"Something is wrong with me, Grandpapi. My eyes… they keep changing colour. And today I went nuts and nearly killed someone just for some money they stole from a bank," Manny explained his problem, hoping his grandfather will understand the situation or have some way to fix it. His grandfather got an optimistic look on him. "Like they went bloodshot?" he questioned, his grandson nodding. "Si. And when I was normal, they had escaped. If they hadn't stopped me, I would have… I just lost it," he added, getting more depressed, not wanting to go into detail further of who he was fighting and how the fight went though. Manny only got a tight hug as result.

"Manny! It's finally happening. Your subconscious is making the choice before you do. You're becoming evil! Soon, we can rule this town together!" Puma Loco cheered. It was like a victory to him. He always tried to do evil acts with his grandson or plant suggestions in his mind. Manny wanted to protest, but at a second thought, what he was saying was making sense. A violent rage just to hurt someone like he had done, and the uncontrollable rage, almost like his tiger instincts, had overwhelmed his thought process. "I… am?" he muttered, knowing the news of this would devastate his father, if anything. All the upsides to being a bad guy had been explained to him so many times, it was easy for him to recite easy wealth and mass destruction and unlimited amounts of fun without rules.

Manny suddenly heard the phone ringing going over and picking it up. "Hello?" he answered. "Hello, Manny…" Zoe's voice rang out. He looked over his shoulder, where his grandfather continued working on the new device. He was more confused why she was calling him. "What do you want, Zoe?" he asked, still feeling a bit bad for going nuts and almost ripping her to shreds when she was Black Cuervo earlier. "I… wanted to know if you were alright. You actually looked scary back there," Zoe answered. Bad guy or not, she still considered him a friend, having desired for much more before.

Manny could feel something battering at the back of his mind before he even realized it. His eyes were red again. "I'm just fine. Why don't we meet up? I'm really bored…" he requested, only hearing silence for a brief moment. She had to think on it, unsure whether he could be trusted after the snap before. "Uh, sure. Where do you want to meet up?" she requested. "The mall. I'll be waiting for you by the fountain," Manny answered before abruptly hanging up. When he turned around he could a smile on his grandpapi after he noticed his red eyes. "You weren't kidding about the colour. You know which decision you want, Manny," he pressured, wanting to help him turn evil if he did agree to becoming a villain. "I need time to think," the red eyed boy laughed before walking out of the door.

It was starting to get a bit late at night as Manny arrived to the mall. He could tell it was closed already, but the fountain he had planned to meet Zoe at was right outside at the entrance, mainly for looks, and there she was in a black dress, wearing a pair of gloves. Her hair was black as well but it had a few light purple streaks of dye in it. She gave a small wave upon seeing him.

"Hey, Manny," Zoe greeted, feeling a bit awkward, wondering why he wanted to meet up with her. The same red look in his eyes still made her slightly fearful, but she just kept calm. "Hey, Zoe. Sorry about the, uh… well, you know," he apologized, just wanting to get that aside. "Yeah, sorry for nearly killing you," she finished that apology speech. The two laughed, as it was an attempt at breaking the ice that felt like it was becoming more awkward.

"I had to use the money I took to repair the damages," Zoe said, sighing, thinking it didn't matter between the two of them if they spoke about their alter egos in a sense. "What did you want to meet up with me about?" she asked, letting him take a seat on the fountain beside her. "Well… I want to do criminal acts. I was hoping you could give me advice," he spoke. It didn't feel like the words he wanted to say, but at the same time those were the only words echoing in his mind. A lust for robbing, thieving and causing destruction that refused to stop. Zoe wanted to refuse at first, but then she believed this could be a fun thing, and that way, it can make up for the money she had lost in repairs.

"Alright, sure. Come on," Eve smiled, leaving alongside Manny to begin the night of mischief.


	6. Burglary

Manny found himself standing on a rooftop in the late of night. Zoe was beside him, looking down into the streets below. "Okay. You see that store?" she pointed ahead. Manny could see a small sized jewellery store, where one with too much money would go to get low quality gems. He knew it was also the newest one in town, maybe having only opened five months ago. "Yeah. What about it?" the red eyed boy responded. She rolled her eyes. "The only security they can afford at night is a guard inside and a security camera at the front door that is right outside. Now the traffic has slowed down and probably won't pick up for tonight. Just sneak along, smash the camera, go in and find the guard, and then steal everything," Zoe explained the plan she had made for him to start off the criminal night. Manny just shrugged before spinning his belt buckle to turn into El Tigre, and beginning to scale down the side of the building to get to the streets.

El Tigre could see the small camera that was dangling a bit above the doorway. He just crouched down and snuck underneath it when he made sure it wasn't looking. He reached up and slashed it to bits. He grinned punching the glass door, and shattering it to pieces, that was when the alarm started blaring. He hid beneath the front of the counter and started hearing footsteps. He presumed it to be the guard already. He watched until the guard came around the corner, and he grabbed his leg, forcing him to trip to the ground. Before he could react, he got kicked in the head, being knocked unconscious.

Zoe waited patiently on the rooftop until she saw his hand on the side of the building, having pulled himself up after fleeing the jewellery store, carrying a bag full of the various gems. "Wow! Good work," she smiled before he turned back into Manny. "It was too easy," he laughed, though noticed an amethyst ring snug on his finger. He pulled it off, not really being that big of a fan of the shiny rocks. "Here. You can have it," he gave it to her. She just looked at it for a second before slipping it on. "Thanks. Now I'm going to let you pick the next place to break into. Rapidos," Zoe insisted, Manny just following, carrying the bag over his shoulder, looking forward to the next few hours.

They spent the night committing various crimes, most of which revolved around robbery and assault to any security guard that even looked at him funny, though after a while, the bag he had been carrying everything in was getting too heavy. He was panting while walking across one of the many rooftops they had been traversing across to hide easier. "Z-zoe? Can we just call it here? I can't carry anymore…" Manny requested. Zoe just looked down at her watch that read 4:38am, thinking they had done all they could tonight before sun could rise. "Yeah, sure," Zoe shrugged, glad that he was so far enjoying the criminal activities. He sat down, drained of his energy. He didn't seem that angry, even with the red eyes. Any rage he had was taken out on one of the many guards that had been rendered unconscious.

"I like this new you. Especially when you aren't trying to kill me," Zoe had to admit while looking around, so far no sign of cops hunting them specifically. "Yeah…" Manny coughed, not really sure of what had brought it all on, but he was mainly thinking back to when the eye colour change started happening, but he could only recall it happening randomly before he went to bed yesterday. Zoe took his hand and pulled out a pen before writing something down on it. He quirked an eyebrow at what it read. The line of numbers added to one simple cell phone number. "Call me if you need anything, Manny. Take care," she gave a smile. It was nicer than he had received from her in the past, but while she walked away to get off the rooftop, one thought was in her mind. "Looks like I win, Frida…" she just enjoyed the late night of the bright stars overhead while going home.

Later on in the next day at his home, Manny had just woken up in his bedroom. His head throbbed in pain, and his eyes were back to blue. He got out of bed, checking his alarm clock. The time was barely 7:38am. He made his way to the living room, holding his head, though his attention was drawn to when he saw his grandfather who was looking over the familiar items on the kitchen table. "Manny! Good morning. Up late last night?" Puma Loco rhetorically questioned. Manny just sighed. "Yeah, yeah. I went on a robbery spree," he admitted, knowing his grandfather would probably be proud of the news, like it or not.

"You did good for a first real outing. Big mistake was only going to jewellery stores, but you have to start somewhere," he stated, sliding all of the gems back into the bag. "I know a guy who can sell them quick. I'll go do that. You've done great, Manny," Puma Loco commented, knowing to get rid of it before his dad came home. Manny was more wondering if he should tell his father or not. Something in the back of his head was making him worried. If his father was told, or if he just found out, what was stopping him from disowning him?

Manny wondered if he could live if his father despised him. It was starting to be the only thought on his mind now, when his eyes went green again.


	7. Searching

Manny found himself back in school, having arrived a little late to his first class. He had went through the school day like normal for the most part at the moment, and he was sitting in history class, more focused than he usually was, though he noticed a crumpled piece of paper land on his desk. He looked over his shoulder, seeing Frida who was making a small wave hand gesture. He unraveled the piece of paper and read it. "How are you feeling?" He just hid the note in his desk afterward and showed her a thumbs up in response, hoping she will understand it, and he continued through class.

Once school let out for the day, Manny was putting his items away at his locker. "Hey, Manny!" he heard, noticing Frida approaching. She slowed a bit, seeing his green eyes. It was still creepy how they just changed randomly. "Hey, Frida," he responded tiredly. Having been up all night had taken its toll on him, draining most of his energy otherwise. "I had an idea on what could be causing your whole… weird problems," she claimed, catching his attention fast with the presumption she had some form of clue to find out what started this. "Really? What is it?" he asked, waiting for some hopeful insight. His dad would be home in a few hours, so he had to know fast.

"You said you weren't feeling like yourself since the hospital trip. So what if someone at the hospital messed with you?" Frida elaborated while they were walking through the halls. Manny did remember the nurse injecting him with various syringes of medicine that burned or chilled his veins. "Maybe. I mean, they gave me weird medicine… we could go try to find that nurse," he said, thinking that finding the nurse that had injected him was the best idea. Frida saw his eyes turn blue again, having to question if the colour change to blue was related to her being near him. He wasted no time heading to the hospital alongside her.

It had taken two hours for them to arrive to the hospital that Manny had been in barely a few days ago himself. They were in the lobby, where at least dozens of different people were seated, looking dreadful drained or tired, and the nurses were going around and getting histories the same way a waiter would gather orders. "Ugh… there must be a ton of nurses on this floor alone. How are we going to find her in all this hospital?" Manny wondered aloud. Frida pointed to the nearby elevator. "Well she'd probably be in paediatric care like you were," she suggested the third floor would be the best place to look. He was thankful she was around to help, and he was feeling like he was slowing down and not wanting to continue doing much.

The two took the elevator to the third floor, the music droning like it was trying to put someone to sleep. Once they got off the elevator they could see a desk nearby where workers were just putting folders away, shredding papers or working on the computer. Manny approached the desk, getting one of the workers attention. "Hey is there a nurse with blonde hair that is kind of short around here?" he requested to know if there was any kind of nurse like that around. The worker just gave an annoyed glare. "Kid, we have blonde nurses but they all are pretty tall in height. Some are taller than me," he answered, Manny giving a confused glance to Frida.

On the way down the stairs, Manny was irritated. "Are you sure that's what the nurse looked like?" Frida had to reassure he was looking for the right person or not since he had been nearly out of his mind in the hospital during his first time admittance. "I know what I saw," he growled, his eyes going red again. "I have a lot of people that hate me and could be happier if I were dead. One got me sick and then they sent someone to my room to mess with my mind," he elaborated on his train of thought at the moment. Frida was unsure of when he became smart to plans like that, but she doubted a villain or someone that hated him could do all of this in less than a day's notice. It was almost like he was becoming paranoid of himself and the things around him.

"Okay… maybe we should just focus on a cure right now before we go hunting down every person that doesn't like you ever," Frida recommended, wanting to treat this weird problem of his before that, doubting a hospital would know what to do in this case. If someone wanted to kill Manny and had the chance to get him sick, then they could have just poisoned him so he was prone to inevitably face death in a few minutes, unless the villain just enjoyed watching someone suffer, but there had been no signs of anyone stalking him. "…Zoe might know…" he groaned, hoping she would need nothing special to help.

"Zoe? Why her?" Frida raised an eyebrow. "I've been hanging out with her since the bank robbery," he described, not wanting to go into further detail of what he had been doing in the time he spent with her. But the two had no clue that someone was watching from the shadows, spying on them like the hospital was under heavy watch in case they had come back. Manny and Frida were off, leaving the hospital to find the gothic girl herself.


End file.
